Order, for a liberal, means only peace; and the hope of a profound peace was one of the chief motives in the liberal movement. Concessions and tolerance and equality would thus have really led to peace, and to peace of the most radical kind, the peace of moral extinction.

An artist is a dreamer consenting to dream of the actual world.

The mind of the Renaissance was not a pilgrim mind, but a sedentary city mind, like that of the ancients.

The human mind is not rich enough to drive many horses abreast and wants one general scheme, under which it strives to bring everything.

Oaths are the fossils of piety.

Faith in the supernatural is a desperate wager made by man at the lowest ebb of his fortunes.

Before you contradict an old man, my fair friend, you should endeavour to understand him.